Petoskey man sentenced to prison on child porn charges

to testify in trial of former housemate

PETOSKEY — A 72-year-old Petoskey man who, in February, pleaded guilty in Emmet County's 90th District Court to possessing child pornography, has been sentenced to prison and ordered to testify as a witness in the jury trial of another man, with whom he formerly shared an address, who is also facing child pornography charges.

Jerry Francis Battle, who initially registered with the Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry in 2000, pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of child sexually abusive material, a felony offense, and was sentenced last month to serve a minimum of 16 months to a maximum of eight years in prison, with credit for 72 days served, and to pay $1,721.25 in fines, costs and restitution, court records show.

Battle will be made to testify as a witness in the trial of Richard Roger Ruffe, 51, who faces 29 felony counts, including multiple counts of possession of child sexually abusive material, multiple counts of distributing or promoting child sexually abusive material and multiple counts of using computers to commit a crime, court records show.

The affidavits filed in the cases state, the Petoskey Department of Public Safety was working with the Charlevoix County Sheriff's Office on an investigation of child pornography being accessed via the Internet and an IP address was identified in Petoskey that had been downloading child pornography. That IP address was later determined to be Ruffe's IP address.

A search warrant was served at the men's home on Dec. 15 and, from Ruffe's room, police seized multiple computers and hard drives, according to the affidavits. Police allege tens of thousands of images and videos depicting child pornography were found as a result of the seizure.

The material allegedly shows children as young as 4 to 6 years old, as well as teenagers, posing provocatively and engaged in sexual activity with adults, according to the affidavits.

Police alleged that the hard drive of a computer Battle identified as belonging to him contained 300 images known to law enforcement to be child sexually abusive material, according to an affidavit filed in that case.